






Chinese Lyric^ 



By Pai Ta-sha» 




Class S^^^^i^O "^Z 

/9/6 



CHINESE LYRICS 

BY PAI TA-SHUN/^uw4 



ClUb': 






All Bights Reserved 



DeDication 
Co mp ance0tor0 



NOTE 

The majority of these lyrics tvcre published in 
" Harper^ s Weekly " during the past tiuo or three 
years and the author is indebted to the editor for 
permission to reprint them. The illustrations are 
selected with grateful acknotoledgement from reproduc- 
tions of old Chinese paintings published in various 
excellent books on Chinese Pictorial Art by the Chinese 
Press at Shanghai. 

PAI TA-SHUN. 

Authors' Club, 

New York, 

August, 1916. 






CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The Flowery Kingdom - - - - 7 

Bronze 8 

Pottery -------9 

At the Fan Shop - - - - - 10 

Absence 11 

Homesickness -12 

The Hermit's Visions - - - - 13 

Brotherhood 14 

Wild Geese 15 

The Deserted Garden - - - - 16 

The Hermit ------ 17 

Out of Mencius 18 

The Temple Bell 19 

In the Garden 20 

Barcarole - - - - - - 21 

The Heron 22 

The Artist's Precept - - - - 23 

The Pai'lou 24 

Richesse Oblige 25 

Ghost Foxes 26 

The Tiger 27 

The Dragon 28 

The Phoenix 29 

The Parrot 30 

The Bridge -31 

The Waterfall 32 

The Island of the Gulls - - - 33 

On the Mongolian Plains - - - 34 

Ancestral Voices 35 

Cormorant Fishing 36 

On the Battlefield - - - - 37 

The Chrysanthemum - - - - 38 

The Chinese Girl in Exile - - - 39 





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The Flowery Kingdom 

Y/yE stood for justice, beauty, love and peace — 

Things of the Spirit, mortal and divine. 
We wrought our splendor into clay and bronze ; 
We fixed on silk the color and subtle line ; 
Philosophy, the scholar's lute and captured flowers — 
These were our dreams come true — the Spirit's sign. 

But from the Steppes the Tartar hordes came down 
Behind the blood-red curtains of the West, 
Seeking dominion, filled with lust of power, 
The murderous dream of empire in their breast — 
Until the Flowery Kingdom reared the Wall 
That stayed the demon legions from their quest. 

Then rose the white disaster in the East, 
Red-handed pirates of the Seven Seas, 
Friendly with bibles that concealed their guns. 
Who killed and plundered through the centuries. 
They were our teachers bringing home to us 
Their strange "Kultur" that seemed to us disease. 

There is no peace for any Land of Flowers 
(Flowers of the mind and flowers of the heart), 
No peace — yet some day under happier suns 
O Righteousness, by human hope and art. 
Out of what ashes and what infamies 
Shall rise again thine altar torn apart ! 



[ 7 ] 



Bbonze 

f^AMELS came with copper from the smelters of Ho-nan ; 

Elephants and junks with tin from down the roaring Straits : 
Gold from Tarshish haply with the year-long caravan ; 
Silver from Peru — who knows ? — behind the morning gates. 

Naked men of metals dart around the vaulting flames 
Where the great stone cauldrons glow and pyres of charcoal burn — 
Ancient dark-skinned artists — now we cannot guess their names — 
Now we dig to find their relics — sword and bell and urn. 



[ 8 ] 



POTTBBY 

•T^IGER and dragon guarded 
The secrets hid in earth, 
The shapes hid in the heavens, 
Shut out from light and birth. 

From the mixed clays and colors 
Of far-sought mine and mart 
Whirled on the wheel of magic 
Grew dream-stuff of the heart. 

We wrested from the ages 
^ And wrought in face of death 
The rainbow of the spirit 
In forms as frail as breath. 



[ 9 ] 



At the Fan Shop 



IV/TY life is of the city 

In the hot thronged bazaars, 
Where the motley traders 
Sell silks and jades and jars. 
Ah, I am of the city 
Who would be of the stars ! 

This morning at the Fan Shop 

I chose this cooling snow. 

On heights so still in heaven, 

On meadows still below, 

On trees with burdened branches 

Whose peace I may not know. 



[ 10 ] 





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Absence 

How the flowers of the aspen-plum flutter and turn ! 

Do I not think of you ? But your house is distant. 

The Master said, " It is the want of thought about it. 

How is it distant 9 " — 

Confucian Analects. 

T^HE Spring seems distant with her jasmine-flowers. 

The gaunt bare trees with icicles are drest, 
The snowbird in the cryptomeria cowers ; 
Yet — is Spring far when Spring is in my breast ? 

And you seem far, too far for eye to see 
Your lantern and your lattices apart — • 
So many moons, so many hundred li 



Yet — are you far when you are in my heart ? 



[ 11 ] 



Homesickness 



TT is not the wind in the medlars, 

It is not the drifting leaf, 
It is not the Three Stars rising 
At the end of the autumn brief. 
But I see the road to Kinsay 
And mj heart is full of grief. 

Through leagues of perished poppies 
And league on league of tea, 
Through the winding river gorges 
From Thibet to the sea. 
To the hoary Avails and towers 
And great gates swinging free. 

From one of the thousand bridges 
I heard the biwa's strain 
As the golden dragon-barges 
Passed and returned again — 
I see the road to Kinsay 
And my heart is full of pain. 



[ 12 ] 




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The Hebmit's Visions 



T.ONG have I followed phantoms 

Upon their luring trails, 
Down summer-scented meadows 
And dream-enamored dales — 
And now that they are vanished 
What strength or faith avails ! 

But yet that morning rapture 
No night quite dims or mars, 
I feel that I shall find them 
Beyond the cliffs and scars, 
Beyond the Tien-Shan Ranges, 
Behind the streams of stars. 



[ 13 ] 



Brothebhood 

We are all Brothers between the Four Seas — 

Confucius. 

nPHE One bethought Him to make man 

Of many-colored dust, 
And mixed the holj spirit in 

In portions right and just ; 
Each had a part of mind and heart 

From One Himself in trust. 

Thus came the brown and yellow men 

And black and white and red, 
So different in their outer look, 

Alike in heart and head. 
The self -same earth before their birth, 

The self-same dust when dead. 



[ 14 ] 



Wild Geese 



TTOW oft against the sunset sky or moon 

I watched that moving zig-zag of spread wings 

In unforgotten autumns gone too soon, 
In unforgotten springs ! 

Creatures of desolation, far they fly 
Above all lands bound by the curling foam ; 
In misty fens, wild moors and trackless sky 
These wild things have their home. 

They know the tundra of Siberian coasts, 
And tropic marshes by the Indian seas ; 
They know the clouds and night and starry hosts 
From Crux to Pleiades. 

Dark flying rtme against the western glow — 
It tells the sweep and loneliness of things, 
Symbol of autumns vanished long ago. 
Symbol of coming springs I 



[ 15 ] 



The Deserted Garden 



T HEAR no more the swish of silk 

Along the marble walks ; 
The autumn wind blows sharp and cold 
Among the flower less stalks. 

In place of petals of the peach 
Fast drifts the yellow leaf ; 
And looking in the lotus-pond 
I see one face of grief. 



[ 16 ] 



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The Hermit 



A MONG the giant cedars 

I have my bamboo hut 
Where the gates of heaven are open 
And the gates of earth are shut. 

With the ancient scrolls to ponder 
And music of the kin, 
With peace that floods the valleys 
And wraps the spirit in. 

Nature unrolls her picture 
And pageant of earth and sky : 
Mountain and mist and sunset 
And moon and stars pass by. 

There are visions that come, and voices 
Within the bamboo hut 
Where the gates of heaven are open 
And the gates of earth are shut. 



[ 17 ] 



Out of Mencius 



^HE King began his tower 

And measured it and planned, 
And the people came together 
And builded it by hand. 

In multitudes they wandered 
Outside the pleasure-ground 
Where the sleek fat does were lying 
And white birds glistened round. 

The people died in battle, 

Of hunger in the wild. 

The King walked in his garden, 

The sun looked down and smiled. 



[ 18 ] 



The Temple Bell 



T HEAR the great bell calling, 
CalliDg with voice of bronze ; 
The bamboos are aquiver 
Along their feathery fronds ; 
Across the lake the darkness 
Makes whiter the white swans. 

I hear the great bell calling, 
In deep-mouthed undertone. 
As if the race that wrought it 
Unnumbered and unknown 
With dreams to give the ages 
Had made its voice their own. 



[ i» ] 



In the Garden 



"TjO you remember, sister, 
The golden afternoon 
When we looked upon the lotus 
And listened to the croon 
Of the doves that sat together 
Among the flowers of June ? 

And deep among the valleys 
A far, sweet sound was heard — 
Some fluter in the forest 
That like a magic bird 
Sang of the unseen heavens 
And mystic Way and Word. 



[ 20 ] 



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Barcarole 



QMALL fingers on the silken strings ; 

Sunset and rising moon ; 
Far hills of lapis, whirr of wings 

Of homing birds in June ; 
And thou wert there, the twilight on thy brow- 
O bitter is the biwa's music now ! 

Beneath the scented tamarinds 

On some celestial trail 
We drifted with the purple winds 

That filled our sampan sail ; 
The purple winds blow once and not again — 
bitter is the biwa's tender strain I 



[ '-J1 ] 



The Heron 



JgROWN shadows of the camphor, 

Gray shadows of the palm, 
With flowery moonlight flooding 
The pool with silver calm ! 

All luminous with lotus 
Faint ripples lave the sands 
Where imaged in the water 
A snow-white heron stands ! 



[ 22 ] 



The Artist's Precept 



T WOULD not paint a face 

Or rocks or streams or trees- 
Mere semblances of things — 
But something more than these. 

I would not play a tune 
Upon the sheng or lute, 
Which did not also sing 
Meanings that else were mute. 

That art is best which gives 
To the soul's range no bound ; 
Something beside the form, 
Something beyond the sound. 



L 23 1 



The Pai'lou 



T\7^ITH phoenixes and tigers 

And dragons' crooked files, 
Faience and wood and marble 
Quaint wrought in curious styles, 
The three-arched gate — a triptych 
That frames the stretching miles — 
Still stands a glazed glory 
Of multi-colored tiles. 

The wind blows through the pai'lou 

Like the sound of myriad feet, 

And in the ancient thujas 

The rustling branches meet 

As if a myriad voices 

Were murmuring in the street, 

The voices of the old time 

Ere time had grown so fleet. 

The pai'lou stands there lonely 
Slow falling to decay, 
But where are the red-maned camels 
That knew the desert way, 
The tilted carts and donkeys. 
The throngs in bright array ? 
Where are the silk-clad maidens, 
O Gate of Yesterdayi? 



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RiCHESSE Oblige 

The Master said, " There is Hwuy t He has nearly 
attained to perfect virtue. He is often in want^ 

— Confucian Analects. 

QNCE he had riches, 
Now he has none ; 
Where is one happier 
Under the sun ? 

Garments and housing 
And fire he brought ; 
He fed the hungry, 
The ignorant taught. 

He raised up the children, 
Their bodies remade, 
And wrought that their souls 
Should soar unafraid. 

Hence said the Master, 
" This man has indeed 
Nearly reached virtue, 
He's often in need." 



[ 25 ] 



Ghost Foxes 



[fHERE is a pack of foxes 
Out in the wintry wood, 
Snow-white and still and ghostly. 
Is it for ill or good ? 

White trees, white earth and whiter 
Beneath the deodars, 
There stand the still white foxes 
And stare at the white stars ! 



[ 26 ] 



The Tiger 



JN THE fastnesses of earth 

He has his lair, he has his birth, 
And goes upon his raging course, 

Master of elemental force. 

He but changes his known form 

To ride upon the wings of storm, 

And whelm the fields and towns with flood ; 

He paints the battle-plain with blood ; 

He ravages with ruthless fire 

Piling the forests on his pyre; 

He shakes the earth as *twere a ball 

Till temples totter to their fall, 

And seas rush in with tidal waves 

To whirl the people to their graves ; 

And often in the guise of pest 

He stalks the world round in his quest. 

And thus he rages on his course. 

Master of elemental force. 



[ 27 ] 



The Dragon 



J^VER-CHANGING the cumulus surges above 

the horizon, 
Black with thunder or white with the glitter of snow- 
capped mountains, 
Rosy with dawn or with sunset, an age-long shifting 

pageant, 
Stuff of chaos for dreamers to forge into magical visions, 
Ranged below it the common earth and the tiger-forces, 
Behind and above it unfurled the starry deeps of the 
heavens. 

Out of the formless clouds we shaped the death- 
less Dragon, 
Symbol of change and sign of the infinite, symbol 
of spirit. 



[ 28 ] 












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The Phoenix 

nPHOU goest down in splendor 
O gorgeous Bird of Dawn, 
With rose and violet pinions, 

Now flaming and now gone I 

But from the night's gray ashes 
Thou risest up serene. 
Immortal and yet mortal 
With wings of rainbow sheen. 

Far flicker golden feathers 
Like rays twixt sky and earth 
From out the purple nimbus 
That curtains thy rebirth. 



[ 29 ] 



The Parkot 



^ PARROT at my lattice 

Came beating starved and thin. 
I opened wide the window 

And let the starveling in. 

And now he preens his feathers, 
The many-colored bird, 
And tries in vain to utter 
A broken happy word. 

Is my love dead or dying 
On some wild battle plain ? 
I cannot see the peach-trees 
Because of mist and rain. 



[ 30 ] 



The Beidge 



A CROSS the foaming river 

The old bridge bends its bow ; 
My father's fathers built it 
In ages long ago. 

They never left the farmstead 
Past which the waters curled. 

Why should one ever wander — 
When here is all the world : 

Family, friends and garden ; 

Small fields of rice and tea ; 
The cattle in the meadow ; 

The birds in stream and tree ; 

The pageant of the seasons 

As the slow years go by ; 
Between the peaks above us 

An azure bridge of sky. 

Though dead they live and linger 

In each familiar place 
With kindly thoughts to hearten 

The children of their race. 



t 31 J 



The Waterfall 



T^HE sound of water falling — 

The wind's retreating breath — 
The whisper through the pinewood — 
These say there is no death. 

For these are voices speaking 
Out of the ancient earth, 
The haven of the deathless 
Tried or untried through birth. 

They speak from out the vastness, 
Foreshadowing to man 
Nature's divine and secret 
Immeasurable plan. 



[ 32 ] 














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The Island of the Gulls 



Tj^AR white flashes on the black storm-clouds ; 

Nearer, screaming gulls that ride the storm ; 
Stunted pines and cedars bending in the wind ; 
In the deep grasses gray nestlings snug and warm. 

Dashing in hordes the monsters of the sea 
White-and-green-flanked eat the granite shore 
Tossing on their horns the bitter foam and brown weed 
Trampling the shingle with deafening roar. 

Reeling junks fly past like wisps of cloud ; 
Sampans scurry homewards in wild alarm, 
While the white gulls flash across the dark 
Over gray nestlings snug and warm. 



[ 33 ] 



On the Mongolian Plains 



A SEA of long uplands and hollows 

Only known to the loneliest birds, 
To the hawks and the curlews and swallows 
That follow the wandering herds ; 

A land where the waterless rivers 
Run down between desolate scarps, 
Where the wind in the thin grass quivers 
And thrums on a myriad harps ; 

Whether sunshine and blue dome of heaven 
Stretch over that infinite space ; 
Or tempest with thunder and levin 
Sweep out on that green sea apace ; 

Whether oases loom green as beryl 
With springs full of solace and charm, 
Or thirst and the fires that imperil 
Shall lead one to fly from their harm; 

Oh give me the life of the prairie, 
The spirit, the freedom, to roam, 
Where the thoughts are as free as the fairy 
And the heart has all space for its home ! 



[ 34 ] 



Ancestral Voices 



/^UT of the deeps I hear the old old voices 

Calling and commanding me to do their will, 
Voices of the legions of the immemorial ages, 
Voices of the dead that live with me still. 

At the place of tombs and in the pear-garden 
Far in the forest, wherever I go — 
Out of the deeps I hear the old old voices 
Telling me the ways I should walk in and know. 

Shrines we made and offerings in house and pagoda ; 
Carven jades we gave for the dead to hold fast. 
Out of the deeps I hear the old old voices. 
Mandates to the children from the race that is past. 



t 35 ] 



COEMOBANT FiSHING 



■\^EIRD night of flashing fires 

When the cormorants go down 
Along the river brown 
Before the sampan pyres. 

We followed, you and I, 
The eerie fleet of flames, 
All heedless of their aims, 
Beneath the starry sky. 

Our boat was full of flowers, 
Fragrant with plum and peach, 
We whispered each to each 
That all the Spring was ours. 

Ah, that was long ago ! 
The river black as night 
Flows under no starlight. 
And Spring lies deep with snow. 



t 36 ] 



On the Battlefield 



XTOW many moons shall light the lotus, 

How many stars shall rise 
To throw their glamour on the garden 
Before I see your eyes ! 

Before I hear again the music 
Of plaintive voice and string 

Behind your rose-entangled lattice 

Where love-birds preen and sing. 

O day of battle I I lie wounded 
And dreams come shiftingly. 

How many moons shall light the garden 
That I may never see I 



[ 37 ] 



The Chrysanthemum 



T\/'E found a mountain flower, 
A weed before our eyes, 
That proved a ragged fairy, 
A princess in disguise. 

By some immortal magic 
She wears a golden crown, 
Irradiating autumn 
With the glory of her gown. 

We changed the plain field flower 
In ages since her birth 
Till throngs now pay her homage 
With all the kings of earth. 



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The Chinese Girl in Exile 

{From the Shi-king of2fi00 years ago) 

TTE came with golden gifts 
And crown and ring ; 
My people made me wed 
The Tartar King. 

And now I roam the steppes, 

A nomad wife, 
Far from my happy home — 

I hate the life ! 

I hate the felt-walled tent, 

I hate the meat, 
I hate the wild mare*s milk — 

Life once was sweet. 

O thou far yellow crane 

In heaven's blue dome, 
Give me thy wings to fly 

Back to my home ! 



[ 39 ] 



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